


Rituals

by zarahjoyce



Series: Fifteen Fluffs [6]
Category: Sentai - Fandom, 烈車戦隊トッキュウジャー | Ressha Sentai ToQger
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-19 00:06:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2366954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarahjoyce/pseuds/zarahjoyce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fifteen truths about Hikari and Mio. More speculations on their origins and some slight spoilers for ep 28.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rituals

1\. He can't explain his intense dislike for vegetables. She can't either, but knows better than to argue with him about it - most of the time, anyway.  
  
2\. Still, it isn't in her nature to give up - not when she knows she's right, that vegetables are good for the body because _everyone_ says so and  he needs to eat them to stay healthy and look, she's even chopped them so finely he can't even detect them in his food anymore and they don't taste gross at all so he _better eat them up_!  
  
3\. It's become some sort of ritual between them for as long as they can remember. She cooks and creates and seeks him first to coax him into eating her food. He'll look at her concoctions with a critical eye, convinced that she's managed to sneak in some ingredients he'll gladly live without. He'll be right - most of the time, anyway.  
  
4\. Then a battle of wills will surely commence. Sometimes he wins and she takes his food plate with a dejected slump on her shoulders and a vow never to speak to him again, ever, ever, _ever_. Sometimes _she_ wins and he ends up with a nasty case of indigestion afterwards.  
  
5\. Still, he doesn't tell her why he looks gaunt and pale some mornings. Other mornings, she conveniently forgets her vow and talks to him as soon as she sees him.  
  
6\. They are both happiest after the day she finds out - by some sort of accident - that he has a fondness for all sorts of puddings. They had it for two weeks straight as their dessert, and no one complained.  
  
7\. (until she got tired of making them one day, and the next day he was as surly and sour-tempered as could be. it was terrifying.)  
  
8\. She doesn't remember it, but it's her father who's instilled in her how necessary it is to not only look after the welfare of her friends but also of her own health, too. After all, how can she protect people when she's feeling weak and unhealthy?  
  
9\. He doesn't remember it, but he doesn't like vegetables because they were the only things his neighbors prepare for him whenever his parents leave him behind. Thank goodness his grandfather often comes by and cooks better dishes for him!  
  
10\. They both don't remember it, but their very first meeting involved her father (a policeman) and his grandfather (a detective), who worked on several cases together without the children knowing it. When his grandfather retired, she and her father were among the very few who were invited to attend a party thrown by his parents.  
  
11\. She found him sitting and playing his kendama by his lonesome. He didn't invite her, didn't call her, but she sat beside him anyway and quietly watched him play. _How do you do that?_ she asked. _What? Can't you?_ She shook her head. _Show me?_ He did.  
  
12\. She wasn't any good at it, but at least she returned his toy properly -  the string was properly wound up and without any knots. She had many questions for him - why was he alone? Where were his friends? Why were his parents nowhere to be found? But it was time to go and her father was there to take her home and she stood to leave, but not without  giving her name and demanding his.  
  
13\. The very next day, during the first day of school, she was glad to see that they were classmates. She chose to sit beside him without another word. Then came lunchtime and, finding him armed with only an apple and carrot sticks, promptly shared her packed lunch with him.  
  
In a way, that was how their ritual started.  
  
14\. Sometimes, whenever she approaches him with a plate on her hand, he stifles both a sigh and a desire to tell her to quit it, to stop making such a fuss over him because he hates it, hates the feeling that she has to take the time to look out for him when she doesn't have to. She already has three people under her wing and he doesn't want to be an added burden, too.  
  
15\. But then he sees how eager and determined she is when approaching him, and despite his firm reservations he finds himself often yielding and spooning some of her creations into his mouth.  
  
Only then does he realize that those moments are always among the best decisions he's ever done in his life - cases of indigestion notwithstanding.


End file.
